Would you believe it, a sword and sorcery adaption of Akira Kurosawa's classic, Yojimbo?! Yes indeed and it's actually rather entertaining stuff to boot in fact.

David Carradine stars as a mysterious, monosyllabic, sword wielding wanderer (try repeating that when you're drunk!) who arrives in a town run by two warring factions and who subsequently proceeds to counter sell his fighting prowess to each side in turn, whilst simultaneously playing them both off against one another.

Containing some nicely implemented sword play (choreographed by fellow star in this and always fun to watch, Anthony De Longis),a fair quota of breasts including one woman who bears four, yes FOUR of them(!) and even a rubbery tentacled monster, this proves to be a highly satisfying watch if your in the mood for the like.

Gotta love the artistic license taken with the poster for The Warrior and the Sorceress, which shows an oiled up, muscle-bound David Carradine striking a heroic pose. It's a misleading image: Carradine, 48 years old at the time, is far from the buff barbarian depicted, keeping his presumably less-than-ripped physique covered throughout. Still, who can blame the producers for trying to generate a Conan vibe with their promotional material, given just how lame this fantasy remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo actually is?

Carradine plays swordsman for hire Kain, who outwits two neighbouring tyrants, Bal Caz (Guillermo Marín) and Zeg (Luke Askew),playing them off against each other. Along the way, he rescues a Sorceress (played by Maria Socas, who spends the whole movie topless),is treated to an exotic dance by a four-breasted woman, battles a toothy monster with rubber tentacles, kidnaps a lizard puppet, defeats an evil slaver with a face like a turtle, and frees the downtrodden people of Yamatar, who only want to be able to visit the village's well in peace. While this sounds like a whole load of silly fantasy fun, the leaden direction, weak script, charmless central performance from Carradine, and a general air of cheapness make the film a real B-movie bore.

A epic masterpiece of barbarous drivel that (un)respectfully tries to tip its hat to both Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Yes, THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS is as much a western (just listen to the score if you don't see it right away) or a samurai film as it is Swords & Sorcery flick... Come to think of it, there's not too much sorcery in this one... The only magic this film has, is the magic of movie-making. Wonderfully realistic cardboard sets. Several fine jump-cuts during editing as the result of things they couldn't accomplish in one take while shooting the scene. Delicious special make-up effects, like that one thing that first appears to be a talking lizard (the equivalent of a rubber sock-puppet) but then later revealed to be a midget in a rubber lizard costume. I could go on, but let's just skip to the best part of the film...

...A gorgeous looking naked babe with four boobs. Yes, not two, but four tits. And it gets even better. She dances, all naked, climbs up a table at which David Carradine is enjoying his meal. And while she distracts him by rubbing her four breasts in his face, suddenly there comes a tentacle shooting out of her vagina - no, don't laugh, I'm serious - injecting some sort of venom in David Carradine that drugs him, so it'll be easier for the bad guys to beat him up. If I would not have seen this film myself, I'd be convinced any movie containing a scene like that, couldn't possibly go wrong even if it tried.

The basic premise... We've got a well, the only source of water for miles around. We've got a settlement on the right, lead by a cunningly fat Overlord and his midget lizard mutant adviser. And a settlement on the left, helmed by what appears to be Matthew Lillard's father (honestly, Luke Askew looks like he could be Matthew's daddy). Stuck between all this, is David Carradine as a loner sword fighter who goes by the name of Kain, but the villagers seem to dub him Dark One. Now, why's that? Simply because he wears a black hooded robe. You'd think that someone going by that name, would at least hail from the upper regions of the Dark Side of the Force, but no, in this film's universe all one needs to be dubbed The Dark One is a black, dusty piece of cloth.

The most clever aspects of the plot, are all about David Carradine's various ways to gain profit out of the situation he has gotten himself into. He pretends to be a sword for hire, but basically ends up repeatedly fooling the two overlords, tricking them into giving him all their money and eventually playing them out against one another. David Carradine is the man. He has always been, God rest his soul.

Other than David Carradine, who really shines in this movie and walks through it like it's a piece of cake (has he ever done otherwise, I wonder?),the main attraction is Maria Socas. She has a lot of scenes in this film, and not one of them required her to put her cloths on. I guess that's just what hot-looking sorceresses do in this hot-climate universe: They walk around topless, wearing nothing but a tight g-string to cover their private parts. Probably to keep possible venom-spewing tentacles in check down there. That's just speculation on my behalf, though. Also, she's supposed to be the titular sorceress, but explains pretty early on in the movie she has lost all her powers. How's that for an angle? A sorceress that isn't a sorceress anymore in a Swords & Sorcery flick. No magic. No special effects. Cheap movie. David Carradine gets all the money. I can see how that works.

A fantastically exciting scene has David Carradine rescuing half-naked Maria Socas out of a dungeon. While being held captive behind bars in that dungeon, Maria is guarded by a being called The Protector. I cannot fully grasp the name given to it, but the creature really is a vile and vicious abomination. It's some sort of giant, sharp-teethed mutant-frog with countless tentacles reaching out throughout the whole dungeon. Who am I kidding here...? This movie is great!

Anthony De Longis plays Matthew Lillard's dad's right hand swordsman (I think Daddy Lillard, who's actually Luke Askew in disguise, is called Zeg in this movie),and serves absolutely no purpose except for sword-battling David Carradine to the death at the end of the movie. His death, of course, not Carradine's. Usually, the naked ladies are presented as sex-slaves or for the mere purpose of providing full frontal nude shots and being drowned in a basin of water, for Zeg's entertainment (while the rest of the village is in desperate need for water, mind you). There's Burgo The Slayer, and his motley crew of mutant turd warriors (seriously, their faces look like dried up bat excrement),who also serve no purpose except for getting all poisoned and dead, which gets Burgo very angry. I kind of forgot what happened next. I think this all leads to a climactic end battle at the well. Couldn't really tell who was who. People just showed up swinging swords and stuff. There's also an old dude with grey hair. Don't know what he was doing in this film, but he seemed to know Maria Socas. Heck, I'd act like if I knew her too, if she'd come to me topless. Can't blame a man for trying.

And... to wrap things up: The ending packs a surprise. Dig this: David Carradine gets the water but refuses the (topless) girl by saying "I travel alone!". Every now and then, Mr. Carradine, Swinger of Swords, does work in mysterious ways. It's either that, or they payed him a whole lot of extra money to make him say that line.